A Small Farm Making a Difference in the Dundas Valley.

This page contains news items, links to interesting sites, and anything else the market managers have wanted to share with you. They are listed in reverse chronological order, with the newest entries at the top.

The Weblog

This page contains news, event information, and other items added by myself, the intrepid farmer-in-process at Old 99. I send out a message every week, but most are set with a delete date about two weeks later. I archive some of the posts if they have content other than weekly availability of produce and meat.

You can send me questions too, which if they are of a general nature, I can post to this Old99 blog.

Old 99 Farm, week of Mar 4 2018

This turned out to be a major breakthrough week in the campaign for climate change response. Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Sequel led off on the weekend in Dundas, Tues was McMaster Climate Change Research centre’s public lecture, Wed was the kickoff of the Bay Area Climate Summit hosted by Burlington, Hamilton and Mohawk College. Thursday is an all day conference at the RBG in Burlington on Bay Area Climate Action. And in Edmonton is hosting the IPCC Climate and Cities conference for three days with 750 climate scientists from around the world. The world is waking up to the urgency of action; you’re going to hear a whole lot more.

That and the federal government budget was made public, with dismal impact.

“This Budget has nothing for climate – nothing at all. It’s as if we’re not in a climate emergency.”
- Elizabeth May, MP

Overall this budget fails to deliver in the best interests of Canadians on the country’s most pressing problems: Growing Inequality, Green Economy and most importantly: Climate Change.

The Liberals campaigned on a promise to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but over two years into their mandate, they are still giving the industry hundreds of millions a year in taxpayer-funded handouts. Budget 2018 should have signalled the beginning of the end for these harmful subsidies.

We don’t have enough growth on our greens to start harvesting but I’m hopeful for next week.

I have a Lineback steer in the freezer, 380 lbs of grass-fed beef. We’re offering pre-selected for $200 or 10% discount for 20lb orders, mixed according to your choice.

Old 99 Farm, week of Jan 15 2018

old 99 farm, week of dec 18 2017

We’ve been having a respite from farming the last week or so, that’s why you havent’ heard from us. The greens grow very slowly this time of year due to short day length, cloudiness and of course temperatures, even in the greenhouses. But we’ve got row cover over the planted beds and fired up the wood stove in the Hobbit House most of last week. That kept temperatures inside the structure about 10 dC warmer than outside. Of course when it’s sunny outside it can easily be 25dC inside. Plants love that!

We can offer chard and kale greens this week, with parsley, cilantro and arugulas well. Storage carrots and onions still in supply. Lots of beef, chicken, lamb and pork. Eggs are getting scarce again.

We’ll be open tomorrow Friday inspite of the snow and next friday too. If you can pick up other days, let me know and I’ll get your orders ready.

Healthy eating.
Ian and Cami.

For a great graphic of how average temperatures are changing all over the plant, country by country see this website.

Old 99 Farm, week of Dec 3 2017

Hi out there, we’re still here. Cami did wonderful job running the farm while I was away at the Bionutrient Food Assoc annual conference. Check it out, lots of content for growers/gardeners of highly nutritious food at their website

A cow got in the backdoor of the Greenhouse last week, chomped a lot of greens, so we’re short for a while. Still lots of meats, eggs. Tomatoes over for the season.

Here are some provocative quotations from my reading in the past week.
-Climate science isn’t a set of dominoes or a house of cards; it’s a towering structure built on a strong scientific foundation.

-It’s certain that the increasing energy burden of bitcoin transactions will divert progress from electrifying the world and reducing global carbon emissions. In fact, I’d guess it probably already has.

-Humanity is decades behind schedule on counteracting climate change, and every action in this era should be evaluated on its net impact on the climate. Increasingly, bitcoin is failing the test.

-Republicans have been cast into a growing civil war between mainstream conservatives, Tea Party-inspired libertarians, and the xenophobic and misogynistic groundswell that Trump has proven expert at tapping into. These schisms reflect genuine divisions in the Republicans’ voter base—and the Mercers, the Kochs, and the Adelsons are adept at exploiting them.

Old 99 Farm, week of Nov 12 2017

Have you heard… 15000 scientists so far signed petition to heads of state that the climate crisis is urgent and risks extinction for humans. “The scientists around the world are very concerned about the state of the world, the environmental situation and climate change,” Ripple said. “So this allows them to have a collective voice.” Reported on CBC

We have greens, root vegetables, meats, including new beef, two quarters remaining each about 80lb of steaks, roasts and ground beef. Good choice of lamb and pork, and lots of stewing hens for chicken soup.

Old 99 farm, week of Nov 5, 2017

All the same good choices this week for vegetables and meats. I’ll have a whole beef in the freezer, half of which is already sold but will be lots of choice.
The Liberty apples are stored in the rootcellar, but won’t likely last as well this year due to the warm weather. We have carrots, beets and lettuce, to add to the squash, tomatoes (including Beefsteak), garlic, cilantro, parsley, watermelon, chives, Russet potatoes, onions, kale, spinach and arugula. Please
order your roasting chickens for December.

We had an overall successful set of speaking engagements with Guy McPherson and Abrupt Climate Change. Total attendance at 4 events was about 300. Most of the talks and interviews are available on youtube.

I’m continuing my interest in promoting and teaching people about permaculture and how to apply its design framework to one’s whole life. All the more relevant for us all in the face of uncertainty about stable climate, food production, and habitat for all species. If interested, you can contact me, to find out how to participate.